Development at Hamilton Gardens

What’s happening?

We are under construction at moment developing a new visitor centre, upgrading our venue spaces, making improvements to the café, and establishing a clear and welcoming entry point into the Enclosed Gardens. This is forecast to be completed in Spring 2024.

During our construction time, visitors can still access the Enclosed Gardens via the English Flower Garden. A temporary portacom has been set-up to provide visitor services such as maps, and wheelchair and mobility scooter hire. Hamilton Gardens Café will be open throughout the construction period, as will the outer areas of Hamilton Gardens such as the Rose Garden, Rhododendron Lawn, and Children’s playground.

We thank you for your patience and understanding while we work to complete construction as safely and quickly as possible.

The new Visitor Centre will enable the processing of paid entry into the gardens and help manage the volume of visitors the gardens attract during the peak summer months.

As the design for the new visitor centre utilises part of the Hamilton Gardens Pavilion, we’ll also be improving our venue experience through enhancing our spaces and enabling more options for our hirers.

Everything is being designed with visitor experience at the forefront along with accessibility, security, and safety. The new Visitor Precinct will enable us to offer better manaakitanga to our visitors as well as create a sense of arrival which reflects our world class gardens loved by visitors from near and far.

Background

The Visitor Precinct project is part of the Hamilton City Council’s 2021-2024 10 Year Plan. The $12M Hamilton Garden Development Project is funded by Council and includes a goal to secure $5M funding externally.

The Development Project includes the Visitor Precinct Project, as well as four new gardens; Ancient Egyptian Garden (opened May 2022), Medieval Garden, Pasifika Garden; and the Baroque Garden. Already completed components include a new toilet block in the Enclosed Gardens, the Hamilton Club summerhouse, and the new Palm Court.

In the 2021- 2031 10 Year Plan, a fee to non-Hamiltonians over the age of 16 for entry to the Enclosed Gardens was introduced to coincide with the upgrading of the visitor arrival centre. Resulting revenue will be reinvested in the Gardens to contribute to new visitor services and experiences.

Further development

Our 2018-2022 Development Programme also includes three more gardens: Pasifika Garden, Medieval Garden and the Baroque Garden, and a linking courtyard and paths.

PASIFIKA GARDEN

This garden will display plants from the South Pacific islands and their closest equivalents. In the centre, a Samoan Fale Afalau shelter will provide an event or teaching space as well as screen the upper glass structure. Within a jungle setting productive plants would be grown such as the: yam, talo, ta’amu, sweet potato, arrowroot, sugar cane, ti, paper mulberry, pandanus, taro, banana, breadfruit; possibly the kava and coconut showing their use and cultivation.

MEDIEVAL GARDEN

From the fall of the Roman empire through to the 16th century, a distinctive form of medieval garden was the monastic, cloistered courtyard. The structure of the courts in this example are based on the ruins of St John of the Hermits Monastery in Sicily.

One court is a simple Cloister Garth, which was a form of courtyard generally used by the monks for prayer and contemplation. The other is an Apothecary’s Garden, which supported the healing of the sick in a monastic hospital.

BAROQUE GARDEN

During the 18th and 19th centuries, European royalty developed dramatic theatrical gardens that included the elements of stage set design. These gardens weren’t just used for theatrical events, they provided a setting for important people to dress up in expensive clothes and powdered wigs and to be seen.

This German or Austrian form will feature a Rococo / Baroque façade, large reflecting pool and two sculptural groups. This garden design has a direct association with classical music, linking it to the arts inspired theme of the Fantasy Collection

 

We need your support

Hamilton Gardens has been built on a long tradition of community support. For more than 40 years community groups and local trusts have worked alongside Hamilton City Council to transform the former rubbish dump into award-winning gardens.

You can support the development of Hamilton Gardens through donating online and sponsorship. All donations to the Hamilton Gardens Development Trust are eligible for a tax rebate.

To discuss how you can get involved please contact us.  

"The potential for this place is so exciting. I think this is the best-kept secret in New Zealand." 
Sir Michael Hill, Patron Hamilton Gardens Development Trust

“The concept is, by far, the most exciting I have seen in my twenty-year career as a researcher in the field of garden tourism. Hamilton could join the ranks of the five international destination gardens... this is because the vision, as stated, is indeed unique in the world and visually spectacular.”
Professor Richard Benfield, Central Connecticut State University, World authority on Garden Tourism

“It’s unlike anywhere else in New Zealand or in the world. I have not been to a garden as good anywhere, and I mean anywhere. Immaculately presented. Just stunning. They’ve quietly created a revolutionary new garden under everyone’s noses.” 
Lynda Hallinan, New Zealand’s leading garden writer

Thank you to our sponsors and supporters

 

            

          

 

             

 

 

WE ARE ALSO GRATEFUL FOR THE DONATIONS WE HAVE RECEIVED FROM:

  • Members of the former Hamilton Club (2017)
  • Vibrant Hamilton Trust
  • E.B Firth Charitable Trust
  • Sir Miles Warren
  • David and Rae Braithwaite
  • Jon and Sue Tanner via Momentum Waikato Community Foundation
  • Bernie and Kaye Crosby via Momentum Waikato Community Foundation
  • Bernice and Jenny Screech 
  • The Maber Family
  • Julie, Kate, and Ken Williamson via Momentum Waikato Community Foundation
  • Glenn and Catherine Holmes
  • Richard and Jan Seabrook
  • Richard and Sheryl Trench
  • The Fraser Family
  • John and Glenice Gallagher